One is a streaming all-in-one and the other is an amplifier. Judge them on how many boxes you want and what you already own, not on the spec sheet alone.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Rega Elicit MK5 has more power - 105W against 80W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.2dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Rega Elicit MK5 the better fit for a large room and a very large room, and Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier for a small room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output increases strongly (162W and 130W). |
| Built-in DAC | B | Both decode on board, but only Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier handles MQA. |
| Streaming | B | Only Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has AirPlay 2, Roon and BluOS. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Rega Elicit MK5 takes more analogue sources - 4 against 2. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Rega Elicit MK5 is the cheaper watt - about $32 per watt against $40. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Rega Elicit MK5 B Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Rega Elicit MK5 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.